Convergence to consensus in heterogeneous groups and the emergence of informal leadership.
Convergence to consensus in heterogeneous groups and the emergence of informal leadership.
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DOI：
10.1038/srep29704
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发表时间：
2016-07-14
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
van Vugt M
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gavrilets S;Auerbach J;van Vugt M
当群体凝聚力至关重要时，群体必须有有效的策略来达成共识决策。最近的理论研究表明，共同决策往往是最有效的方式来处理信息的不确定性和个人偏好的变化。然而，一些动物和大多数人类群体通过特定的个人，领导者，对群体决策有不成比例的影响，来做出集体决策。为了解决理论和数据之间的这种差异，我们研究了一个简单但通用的模型，该模型明确关注由偏好、某些人格特质（一致性和说服力）、声誉和社交网络异质的个体组成的群体中共识建立的动态。我们发现，群体内的异质性可以显着延迟民主共识的建立，以及引起非正式领导人的出现，即个人与群体决策的影响不成比例的大。因此，我们的研究结果意味着强大的领导力的好处，特别是当群体经历的时间压力和成员之间的重大利益冲突（由于各种个体之间的差异）。总的来说，我们的模型揭示了为什么领导和决策等级制度普遍存在，特别是在人类群体中。
When group cohesion is essential, groups must have efficient strategies in place for consensus decision-making. Recent theoretical work suggests that shared decision-making is often the most efficient way for dealing with both information uncertainty and individual variation in preferences. However, some animal and most human groups make collective decisions through particular individuals, leaders, that have a disproportionate influence on group decision-making. To address this discrepancy between theory and data, we study a simple, but general, model that explicitly focuses on the dynamics of consensus building in groups composed by individuals who are heterogeneous in preferences, certain personality traits (agreeability and persuasiveness), reputation, and social networks. We show that within-group heterogeneity can significantly delay democratic consensus building as well as give rise to the emergence of informal leaders, i.e. individuals with a disproportionately large impact on group decisions. Our results thus imply strong benefits of leadership particularly when groups experience time pressure and significant conflict of interest between members (due to various between-individual differences). Overall, our models shed light on why leadership and decision-making hierarchies are widespread, especially in human groups.